The DCMS memorandum for the Commons post-legislative scrutiny of the Act578 stated: “Following the Gambling Commission’s RET Review in 2008 the Government decided that the voluntary levy should continue, and section 123 would not be enacted unless the voluntary approach failed to generate sufficient funding to sustain a programme of research, education and treatment.” This is a misunderstanding of the legislative process. The whole Act, including section 123, was “enacted” when the Act received Royal Assent on 7 April 2005. Section 123 was brought into force, along with the majority of the Act, on 1 September 2007.579 But it remains ineffective unless and until Ministers use their powers to make regulations imposing a mandatory This is what successive Governments have refused to do onlinecasinoluxembourg.com/testberichte/mr-green/.
For many years the industry has on a voluntary basis contributed 1% of its GGY to research, education and treatment. The amount has been subject to increasing criticism, as has the Government’s refusal to implement a mandatory levy. In their Strategy 2018–2021: Making Gambling Fairer and Safer,580 the Gambling Commission noted that the response by gambling operators to the voluntary levy had been “slow and insufficient”, and “continued failure in this would be unsustainable and unacceptable for the future.” The Commission therefore recommended a mandatory levy, which would “be a fair and credible way of addressing some of these weaknesses should they continue and indeed has support within the industry, including among the largest operators.” If there is indeed support for a mandatory levy among the largest operators, it has not been apparent to us.
On 11 March 2019 Mims Davies MP, the minister then responsible for gambling, said in a Westminster Hall debate that if the industry did not hit its voluntary target of £10 million a year then she did not rule out a mandatory levy. A month later the Gambling Commission published its National Strategy to Reduce Gambling Harms,581 which stated that:

“The Gambling Commission is committed to pushing industry to meet their responsibilities in this space, but we have also publicly stated our support for an appropriate levy as provided for in the Gambling Act 2005 which would be a significant part of providing a greater consistency of funding based on need.”